


Mint Jelly Rhapsody

by 8inchCaliper



Category: Chopped (US)
Genre: Angst, Angst with a Happy Ending, Extramarital Affairs, F/F, Falling In Love, First Time, Food Kink, Friendship/Love, Oneshot, Pride, Rare Pairings, Romantic Fluff, Slash, Workplace Relationship, femmeslash
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-06-10
Updated: 2018-06-10
Packaged: 2019-05-20 10:34:57
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,204
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14893002
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/8inchCaliper/pseuds/8inchCaliper
Summary: Up until recently, Amanda's life was tidy and compact. She never imagined getting caught up in an affair - especially with an Iron Chef...





	Mint Jelly Rhapsody

On the set of the hit Food Network show, Chopped, cameramen circled like buzzards, half their camera lenses inclined towards the panel of judges, not focusing but rather finding marks for later shots. They looked busy but were actually rather idle as there was some time before shooting was to begin. This was only the millionth time they had done this and so there was no urgency as hair and make-up teams worked their magic.

Amanda Freitag checked the calendar on her phone for upcoming obligations while make-up dusted another light layer of foundation to her slight tanned forehead and cheeks. She’d done a lot of outdoor work as of late, some planting and light gardening when she had the time. Keeping busy was part of her new initiative to keep fit and ward away loneliness. But it was proving difficult. She’d always been a loner who just did her work and kept her head down and under the radar, but there was something nagging at her, something pressing she couldn’t pin down…

To her far right, she heard Geoffrey Zakarian’s deep voice, the conversation between he and Ted Allen becoming more and more lively. They got along well and covered an array of topics from Lakers games to the finest café’s in Europe. In between, Ted practiced his script while Geoffrey chatted with one of nine cameramen or crew. Regardless, Amanda liked the sound of men talking because it meant they weren’t paying attention to her. She could blend into the woodwork and focus on her own life and thoughts… but that was proving difficult as she tried to ignore the heavy oppressive gaze coming from her immediate right. 

For the last several minutes, she had been trying to ignore Alex Guarnaschelli’s staring dark eyes beside her, intense and unyielding. Finally, she turned to meet her glare. 

“It’s really hard to think when you keep doing that.” She murmured. 

“What?” Alex feigned ignorance. “What am I doing?”

“You know what you’re doing.” Amanda glanced back down at her phone and wondered if there was time to do a quick meditation exercise. She’d downloaded several apps like that in the last three weeks. Her phone was getting cluttered with self-help apps…

“Listen, why can’t we just talk?”

“I never said we can’t talk.” Amanda was loathe to chat about personal matters in front of the crew even while they were largely distracted and caught up in their own conversations. Being this was a cooking show, it was a busy atmosphere; there was a lot to do, lots of down time and lots of editing. Still, it made her self-conscious. 

“You were so pissed at me last night, and I wondered why.”

Amanda’s smile was patient. “You literally threw cake batter at me.”

“I was being playful.”

“And you banned me from Butter, which is fine…”

“I never banned you. Why would I ban you?”

“Because you’re a megalomaniac. And a bitch.”

“I didn’t ban you.”

“Not in so many words, but…”

“Amanda, I swear on my mother’s cannelloni, I would never ban you from one of my restaurants.”

Amanda turned to look at her, now. Geoffrey and Ted’s banter had all but died down and she felt heat rise in her face as she lowered her voice a notch. “Can we not do this? We’re filming in ten minutes…”

“We’re waiting for competitors.” Alex called out to the set director. “We’re waiting for competitors, right?”

“Jesus, Alex…” Amanda resisted the urge to cover her face with her hands. She was already in hot water with the lead make-up person for constantly ruining her powder job. “Later, okay?”

“We’ll get coffee.” Alex’s deep eyes were laser-focused on her, and she shifted in her chair. 

“It’ll be too late for coffee.” 

“Drinks, then? On me?”

“Did someone say drinks?” Geoffrey grinned and smoothed his gunmetal suit down and they all glanced at him. He was the epitome of a silver fox, his grayish hair perfectly trimmed, tanned skin a smart contrast against the crisp white shirt he wore, teeth and nails white and clean and magazine ready. Next to him, Amanda always felt frumpy and low-rate. She sighed and put her phone in her blazer pocket. 

“Listen folks, we’re going to start in ten.” A director came over. “We were having a little issue with one of the competitors, trying to cover a vaguely offensive tattoo…”

Amanda made a face. She wanted to get this taping over with. When she looked to her right, Alex was already watching her, and she sighed. “What?”

“Have a drink with me, later?”

“Alex…”

“Say yes.”

“I’ve never known you to beg.” 

“So, that means I really want you to say yes.” 

“Can I think about that?”

Thankfully, within minutes, the taping began. Ted did his intro, competitors entered, were introduced and took their stations. Basket ingredients were revealed and the judges were focused on the competition as contestants were challenged with the task of preparing an appetizer using whole canned chicken, arugula, red licorice ropes, and goat cheese. 

Amanda silently cursed whoever came up with the stupid licorice. Otherwise, she might’ve had a decent salad for lunch. Now, she knew it was going to be something odd and possibly unpalatable. Once the clock started, she chewed her lip and watched as the chefs scrambled around the kitchen for ingredients. 

The culinary producer brought over samples of the basket ingredients to try. No one wanted to sample the canned chicken - surprise, surprise! Alex bit into a licorice while Ted and Geoffrey sampled the cheese. Amanda chewed a bit of arugula but what she really wanted was a cheeseburger. This was going to be a long day. 

Geoffrey made some comment about goat cheese while he and Ted went back and forth about the usefulness of it in salads while Alex made some off-handed comment about how licorice could be simmered down and made into a light vinaigrette, if put together correctly. Amanda nodded, agreeing. 

“I think if paired with citrus, a reduction could prove valuable and summery enough.” She murmured. 

She could feel Alex next to her looking at her, and it made her squirm. 

There was a part of her that welcomed the attention. For whatever reason: horniness, loneliness or just plain stupidity, she had entered into an illicit affair with the Iron Chef and had delighted in the fact that Alex seemed completely and utterly smitten with her. The problem was, she didn’t know what to do with that at this conjecture. 

It was some months ago, and it had been a long night of taping – like any other night. The two of them had found themselves weary from a day spent under the lights, on camera and surrounded by crew and colleagues. They had enjoyed the playful quiet conversation and had decided to take it to Amanda’s condo, which wasn’t far from the set. They had enjoyed wine and friendly work banter and then Amanda had felt a strange gravitational pull on her, something in Alex’s eyes and some kind of intense vibe. When they set their wine glasses down, they found themselves in each other’s arms and Alex kissed Amanda until she felt her eyes roll back in her head and her breath being taken away. 

The way Alex devoured her mouth like she was dying of thirst made Amanda feel like the caviar tartare at Le Bernardin! The Italian suckled and nibbled and made sweet love to the blonde’s mouth, and Amanda felt herself losing her already dubious grip on reality. 

“Okay…” she had pulled back and covered her mouth, delirious. “…what… what is this? What are we doing?” 

“I’m sorry, Amanda. I just… I’ve wanted to do that for so long.”

“You’re married, Alex.” 

The smaller chef shrugged. “I know it’s difficult to understand, but it’s okay. He gets it.”

“Yeah, but I don’t even know if *I* get it.” She tried to ignore Alex’s hands on her still. “I don’t know how I feel about it.”

“Does it feel good? Do I feel good?”

Amanda hesitated before nodding. “Yes. Too good.”

“There’s no such thing.” And she’d brought her mouth in again and gently kissed Amanda’s mouth. Alex had such deft hands. Chef’s hands. She’d brought one up to tangle in Amanda’s soft light hair, the blunt nails lightly scratching and anchored her. Her other hand held her around the waist, feeling her warm skin through the thin shirt she wore. She’d broken the kiss only long enough to say, “I want you.”

Amanda’s body had tingled at the thought – and nothing could have prepared her for the way Alex worshipped her body, spent hours kissing, licking and sucking every inch of her until she was a quivering mass of nerve endings and sweat. There was so much wetness, even dripping from her eyes. She didn’t know if she was overwhelmed or just emotionally spent. One leg was draped over Alex’s shoulder and their eyes met at some point as they exchanged amused smiles because Amanda would never, in a million years, have imagined herself in this position with Alex Guarnaschelli. 

Even now, sitting on the set of Chopped, halfway through the Entrée round, she felt perspiration form at her temples and in other more discreet places as she tried to get comfortable in her chair. She prayed for a break, just to move her legs and press a cool towel to her neck. 

The excitement in the air was palpable, but a lot of that was condensed down for the final cut of the show so it was even more harrowing to the viewers. For the panel judges, a lot of this time was spent sitting around and twiddling thumbs. The cooking was real, but it was so edited that a mere 45 minutes was the final product of several hours’ worth of cooking, walking, and reaction shots. 

Amanda felt her stomach rumble in response to the smell of seared garlicky shrimp, and she looked forward to her sampler plate. The entire day was spent smelling food being cooked and only a fraction of that time was spent actually eating, but sometimes it was enough. 

She glanced to the right of her and marveled in the sight of Alex’s dark eyes laser-focused on the action down in the kitchen. She really did have a brilliant mind and expert ideas. She was, for all intents and purposes, a culinary genius. The judges and other chefs alike took what she said to heart and truly valued her opinions. She had made great strides in her field and even done a lot of work for charities and various causes. When she turned to look at Amanda, the blonde flushed pink. They exchanged smiles, and Amanda felt herself get weak. She thanked God she was seated. 

Currently, one of the competitors was cooking a thick center-cut pork chop and all panel judges were craning their necks to see because he was starting to plate when the meat clearly wasn’t cooked. 

“This is insane.” Ted murmured. “I don’t think that chop was in the pan more than three minutes.”

“Medium is one thing.” Geoffrey chimed in. “Rare is something completely different.”

“You can see the blood coagulating from here.” Alex was shaking her head. “It just might get up and run – which is fine for beef, but not pork.” 

Amanda just gaped, her stomach lurching. She didn’t mind rare meat, but uncooked pork was risky at best…

“There’s five minutes remaining on the clock, chefs.” Ted’s voice called out in warning. 

“I don’t know how he’s planning to consolidate this chop situation, but if it were me, I’d cover it and hope for the best at this point.” Geoffrey shrugged, he and Alex conferring.

“Exactly. I mean, pork doesn’t take long, but you don’t save it for the last minute, either.”

“It certainly needs more than a sear.” Amanda replied, eyes struggling to comprehend what she was seeing as plating began. “I’m not terribly fond of raw pork.” 

“Not even with mint jelly?” Geoffrey joked, catching Amanda’s eye over Alex’s head. 

The blond smirked, a blush coloring her cheeks. 

Mint jelly had been the catalyst for she and Alex’s little ‘spat’ last night which ultimately resulted in Alex banning Amanda from Butter, which she was claiming now was not the case…

“I think it’s kind of disgusting.” She’d murmured during a moment of downtime after filming last night. For whatever reason, the chefs had been down in the kitchen after the competitors had gone and most of the other crew. The cleaning crew was clearing dirty dishes and food. 

“You just haven’t had it properly.” Alex had replied. “I could make you love it. Paired with grilled or roasted lamb with a nice orzo paste…”

“I’m not terribly fond of lamb, either.” Amanda was grinning. “Admit it; you don’t know what I like.”

“I think I know what you like.” Alex’s smirk was devilish. “As a matter of fact, I’m positive I know what you like.” 

“Food-wise, I’m picky at times.” Amanda wasn’t taking the bait. “For instance, I know you make a lamb sausage cavatappi pasta, but I don’t know if I’d enjoy it…”

Now Alex had gaped at her. “That’s one of my signature dishes. How can you tell me you don’t like it?” 

Amanda shrugged. “I don’t know. I just get picky.”

Alex had reached beside her into a leftover bowl of cake batter and shook the whisk vaguely in her direction, getting a splatter of white on her black blazer to which Amanda had gasped. 

“Alex! What the hell?”

“You like cake batter?” she’d grinned. 

“No! You idiot! Look what you did!” she reached for a nearby towel and tried to pat the thick gunk off her clothes. “That was totally uncalled for!”

“Here. Let me help.” Alex had reached out to her, but she’d backed away from her. 

“No, you’ve done enough.” She was genuinely pissed. 

“Listen, Amanda, if you don’t like the menu at my restaurant then don’t come there!”

“Fine. I won’t.” And she’d turned and exited, leaving Alex there to look on. 

Of course, later, there had been an endless barrage of texts and calls to which Amanda had ignored. Instead, she’d chosen to soak in a hot lavender bath and tried to block out the crazy woman in her head who she hated to admit she was strangely drawn to. 

Alex was insane. The few times they’d been together when they weren’t filming had been odd and passionate and wild. Alex was some kind of psychotic perfectionist who got seriously obsessed with a concept or idea and she didn’t back down easily. 

For instance, there was the time they had lay in Amanda’s bed and Alex had gotten it in her head to arrange wafers along Amanda’s thighs, drizzled with homemade whip cream (she’d insisted on making herself because store-bought was trash) and slices of strawberry and peach and she’d eaten it off her like she was the Cerise appetizer at The Herbfarm. Generally, by the time they got to actual lovemaking, Amanda was usually a quivering heap of need so close that Alex only had to breathe on her and she was done, her body surging and tumbling off the invisible edge. But Alex made it tangible. She made everything tangible. 

Now, on the set, the chefs were deliberating on who should be eliminated in the Entrée round. Even though the food had been generally mediocre at best, raw-pork-guy had lost out. There was literally a puddle of blood on the plate making it almost impossible to eat the other sides. But at least the other plates had been vaguely palatable…

The set director called for a break and Amanda was so happy she could have kissed him as she got up and rushed to the restroom. 

In the bathroom stall, Amanda found a temporary sanctuary. Sometimes, this show was difficult at best and that was mostly because it was time consuming. Sure, it was lucrative and she was blessed to be on it, but she also hated these long days and she hated the tension between she and Alex. When it was good, it was really good – but when it was bad, she felt like her head was going to explode. 

At the sink, she scrubbed her hands with warm water and foaming antibacterial soap that was vaguely sweet smelling. In fact, she lifted her hands to her face and was inspecting the suds when the smaller woman entered, her long dark hair framing her attractive face. Her expression was unreadable as she smiled warily. 

“You gonna eat that?”

Amanda shook her head and rinsed the soap. “I was smelling it. It’s strange.”

“Maybe with a little shaved ginger root and cinnamon it could pair well with the raw pork.”

Amanda laughed in spite of herself. She dried her hands and looked at Alex. “You’re insane.”

Alex shrugged a shoulder. “Maybe.” The silence was brief. “I’m sorry about last night.”

“It’s no big deal.”

“I’ll take care of the dry cleaning. You know that.”

“I know.” Amanda sighed. “It’s not about the blazer, Alex. It’s the principle.”

“I get defensive about my food. I want you to like everything about me.”

Amanda nodded. “I understand that. And I do, for the most part.”

“Many people don’t know I’m very sensitive.”

For some reason, the admission made Amanda want to protect her. She approached her and rested her hands on her shoulders. The six-inch height difference made this more fun. “Please don’t throw things at me.”

“You mean cake batter?”

“Anything.” Amanda grinned. She lowered her head to close the distance between them and kissed the other woman gently on the mouth. Their tongues touched and Amanda tasted fruit as she delved deeper, her own whimper involuntary. 

Alex pulled back long enough to say, “I want to eat you like a fresh water oyster.” 

Amanda moaned. “Shut up. You’re going to make me wet.”

They embraced and kissed for several minutes until Amanda pulled back and furrowed her brow. “The make-up person is going to shoot me.”

“Are we on for drinks later?”

“Lets skip drinks. I want sex.”

Alex smiled. “Good. Very good.”

“I’m going to go back out there. You wait a few minutes although I’m almost ninety-nine percent sure that Geoffrey knows anyway.”

Alex rolled her eyes. “Who cares? Anyway, Geoffrey is too busy basking in the afterglow of having nearly beat Bobby Flay in a rib cook-off.” Then she snorted. “He should know by now that nobody beats Bobby.”

Amanda nodded. “You have a point.” 

Alex kissed her again. “You’re so addictive.”

“I have to go.” Amanda murmured, letting herself be kissed but also trying to pull away. “I’m going to go.” 

“Okay. Okay. Okay.” Alex released her grasp on the taller woman. “I’ll be right out.”

Amanda exited and tried to focus on the next few hours instead of the afterwards, when she would be tangled in Alex Guarnaschelli’s arms. It was only a matter of time, and seating herself for the dessert round, she hoped she could wait it out. It was excruciating, but the payoff would be worth it. 

 

 

END


End file.
